Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Maisy's Ballet Birthday Party

Sunday was little Maisy's big birthday. She turned three and to celebrate we had a little ballet themed party. Maisy has just started dance this year and she is 'all about ballet'.

So I planned her party around twirling with friends.

I painted a grapevine wreath with white spray paint and hung a little pair of ballet slippers from a big pink bow. The slippers are actually Christmas ornaments-- one advantage of Hobby Lobby having their holiday goods out so early is that I snagged several cute ballet ornaments at 40% off!

We turned the sitting area off our kitchen into Maisy's dance studio by removing all the furniture. The open space, hard wood floors, and natural light made the perfect space for dancing.

I took down our wall decor and replaced it with draped fabric, adorable party bunting and tissue paper poms. The party table also held mini-cupcakes, our crafts, hydrangeas, and of course the cake.

I made a table skirt into a tutu by gathering several yards of tulle with the sewing machine. I hot glued the ribbon over my stitch line. Maisy was delighted to see that even the table was 'dressed up' for the occasion.

All the party printables were created by BrieZee's Boutique. I love her style- the little ballerina looks just like my tiny dancer. Briana was easy to work with and made sure all of our printables were perfect. The package I used for this party included the invites, party circles, centerpiece circles, a coloring sheet, a birthday sign, cupcake wrappers, folding blank tents, water bottle labels, bunting, favor tags, and thank you notes. Everything was personalized- so all I had to do was print it out!
This year I had the cake made by the bakery at Market Street. I brought in a photo of a cake I had seen on the Amy Atlas website. I was so pleased with how it turned out. The little ballerina is another Christmas decoration from Hobby Lobby :)

About 15 minutes before our guests arrived, Maisy fell asleep on the couch. I guess all of our party prep wore her out!

But after the first little friend arrived, she was up and ready to go. The girls played upstairs for a bit then came down and decorated crowns and wands.

As they were wrapping up the crafts, our special guest arrived. To make our party extra sweet, we hired the ballerina that taught Afton last year. Miss Rachel was amazing with the girls. She captivated them for a good 30 minutes with a mini-dance lesson. She truly has a gift for dance and teaching-- the girls loved her!

After dancing, the girls played outside in the bounce house and then back upstairs. Then we moved on to cake and ice cream, followed by presents and a bit more playing.

Celebrating with our dear friends and family was the perfect way to spend the day.